City to waive fines on burglar-alarm ordinance

By Lyle Moran, lmoran@lowellsun.com

Updated:
12/05/2012 12:19:00 AM EST

LOWELL -- City residents and businesses who were fined $300 recently for not complying with the city's burglar-alarm registration ordinance will have their fines waived, City Manager Bernie Lynch announced Tuesday night.

Under the ordinance, which the city hired a private company to enforce earlier this year, all privately monitored alarm systems must be registered with the city.

Commercial sites are required to pay a $15 registration fee and residents are required to pay $10.

Councilor Rita Mercier raised the issue of the hefty fines for noncompliance at Tuesday night's council meeting, saying she received calls from concerned residents, including some who never received information telling them how to register their alarms.

Lynch said the city had received similar calls.

He said some people were fined who don't have alarms and others paid under the wrong account numbers.

Lynch said within the next several days every one who has a phone number connected to their alarm account will receive a phone call telling them to ignore the $300 fine. Those impacted will also receive written correspondence about the fines.

The manager also said he intends to come back to the council with modifications on how the ordinance should be administered.

Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee suggested the city turn to an outside contractor to enforce the ordinance and after seeking proposals the city chose to go with PMAM Corp.

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PMAM is based in Texas and operates false-alarm reduction programs across the country.

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